Everyday Struggle
by emersonavenue
Summary: AU when the FBI and NYPD have to work together to stop a terrorist organization new relationships are formed and love is found.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Stargate Atlantis.

Lieutenant Steven Caldwell looked at the clock as he paced around his office in the NYPD. He was waiting for two of his detective to get here and he had been waiting for forty minutes. He had no idea where the two could have gone, one minute they were sitting at their desks filling out paperwork and the next nothing. They knew he was waiting, he had called them ten times, and paged them, and was getting close to sending out an APB. Finally, after another five minutes of waiting he saw them come through the door.

"Sheppard! Emmagan!"

They looked over at him as he yelled their names and exchanged nervous glances before walking into his office.

"Where have you two been? I have been calling you for almost an hour."

John sat down in a chair across from Caldwell's desk and Teyla closed the door behind her just as he began to yell.

"Sorry sir, my phone died."

"That's a load of crap Detective you just don't want to have this meeting."

That was true John didn't want to have this meeting. He hated the FBI, for no real reason other than that he could. After he and Teyla had intercepted Intel from a terrorist organization, Caldwell had called the FBI for help and they sent the Joint Terrorism Task Force. He just didn't like that it made it seem like he and Teyla couldn't handle it themselves.

"I don't think we need their help, we can handle this on our own."

"No, we cannot John."

John knew she was being rational and was probably right but he was in the middle of getting his frustration out before seeing the agents because Caldwell might actually kill him, like he threatened to do on more than one occasion.

"Whose side are you on?"

"Please calm down, we have stalled long enough."

John let out a huff and Caldwell nodded at Teyla.

"Thank you. Now they have been waiting here as long as I have, so let's go talk to them."

John nodded reluctantly and got up.

"Where are they?"

"The conference room was booked so I put them in interrogation room C." John let out a small laugh.

"You have had two FBI agents waiting in an interrogation room for the past hour. You are so dead."

"No Sheppard, you are." The laugh died as he looked through the observation window into the interrogation room.


	2. Chapter 2

John looked through the window into the interrogation room and froze. He could not go in there. He was going to be killed for sure.

Sitting on the table with his back to them was a large man, a very large man who could probably snap John in half if he wanted to. He looked well over six feet tall. His hair was in dark brown dreadlocks that were pulled back into a ponytail and his skin was dark. He sat there reading a file and would occasionally make comments to his partner as she talked on the phone. The partner was John's other problem; she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in his life. She was average height, thin with fair skin. Her brown hair was curled around her face and swung back and forth as she paced the length of the room talking on her phone. Every once in a while she would clench her fists and it looked like she would break the phone but instead she just smacked her partner on the arm and went back to pacing.

* * *

Teyla watched the woman walk back and forth across the room, or at least she tried to. Her eyes kept being drawn to the man sitting on the table. His suit jacket had been discarded on a chair and she could see the muscles of his back and arms. She could imagine what he would look like without the black shirt on, she quickly stopped that train of thought before it was too late and looked back at the woman. She was pretty, with brown hair and Teyla caught a glimpse of her smile for a few seconds when she grabbed the file from her partner and hit him with it. Other than that, she looked very annoyed as she talked on the phone. She looked at John from the corner of her eye and noticed him watching the brunette's every move.

* * *

Elizabeth paced back and forth in the tiny room that Ronon had been muttering under his breath about for the past twenty minutes. The few words she caught had been 'hell, prison, and I'm going to kill the NYPD'. She was not very happy about being locked in the room either but Ronon never had liked waiting and the fact that it was in a room with bars on the windows made it that much worse. Her main problem was the scientist that she was on the phone with. 

"Rodney… Rodney… no Rodney I do not want to know about your new… no I have no idea what that is… Dr. McKay… can you please stop… can you please st-."

Ronon had apparently had enough of the conversation and grabbed the phone out of her hands.

"Gimme that."

"Ronon!"

She tried in vain to get the phone back but secretly wanted him to tell the scientist to shut the hell up.

"McKay! Shut up right now or I will shoot you… thank you. Now don't go into some long scientific explanation I wont understand just give me your results and I'll buy you lunch later…okay… uhuh…really…can you send that to Liz's phone…thank you… yes it will be a big lunch… goodbye McKay."

Ronon hung up and rolled his eyes wondering how he was going to survive lunch.

"So what do we have?"

He looked up at his partner.

"Huh? Oh the lovely people at the NYPD still haven't gotten him the stuff so he can run the tests yet."

"Then what did he send me?"

"Jeanie sent me pictures from Maddie's birthday, Katie and Rodney's vacation… oh and some of the new girl working at the lab."

"Ronon!"

"What it was her idea."

She took the phone from him so she could look at the pictures herself. She thrust the files that were sitting on the table at him.

"Finish reading the files so we can get this meeting over with."

"I already did, twice. Oh did you see that ones of McKay at the beach."

"Yeah he looks ridiculous."

She put her phone away and sat down on a chair at the table.

"I know. So what do you think of the case?"

"Not sure, there are so many holes in it."

"Yeah and they haven't even had the surveillance tapes translated yet."

"You're going to end up doing it."

"Exactly why I'm mad."

She looked at the clock for what seemed like the millionth time. It was 10:23; they had gotten there at 9:30. Elizabeth was getting very angry. She had to drag Ronon out of the office without the proper number of cups of coffee he should have before interacting with normal people. She sat in traffic with him next to her grumbling about how much he hated the NYPD and their boss who had been the one to set up the meeting at this ungodly hour of the morning. Elizabeth had been in a fine mood and had no problem with getting up that early but if Ronon was not happy, she was probably not going to be happy. That was why she had finally stopped at Starbucks and used her badge to get to the front of the line where she got four cups of coffee, three for Ronon and one for herself.

"When are they going to get here, we have been waiting almost an hour?"

"Yeah I'm so bored I'm looking foreword to lunch with Rodney."

Elizabeth let out a small laugh, Ronon and Rodney never got along well. Sure, they were friends and would do almost anything for each other but they spent all their time together fighting and at some point Ronon usually threatened to kill him.

"I never thought I would hear you say that."

"I never thought I would have to."

The partners sat together at the table reading files and making comments about them for the next few minutes until finally, the door opened.


	3. Chapter 3

After a few minutes of standing in the observation room Caldwell decided that it was time for them to go in. He pushed John away from the window to the door. When he didn't make a move to open it Caldwell did it for him then pushed him into the room, as his partner obediently followed. The two agents that were sitting at the table stood up to greet them after the woman whispered something into her partner's ear.

"Sorry for the wait, I'm Lieutenant Steven Caldwell and this is Detective John Sheppard and Detective Teyla Emmagan."

"Hello, I'm Special Agent Elizabeth Weir and this is my partner Special Agent Ronon Dex. We are with the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force"

She offered them a small, very forced smile and her partner just gave them a small nod of his head.

"Well, let's take a seat and get to work."

Agent Weir nodded in agreement and took a seat at the table next to her partner. The two detectives sat down on the other side of the table and Caldwell sat at the head.

* * *

John was scared again, this guy was even bigger than he thought he would be and this woman was even more beautiful up close. He tried not to stare too obviously but wasn't sure if he was doing a good job. He watched her listening attentively to what Caldwell was saying and was sure he should be doing the same but was finding it difficult.

* * *

Teyla kept sneaking glances at Agent Dex out of the corner of her eye as she listened to Caldwell. He was even better looking than she thought he would be. His eyes were a deep green, he had a small beard and when he shifted in his seat the collar of his shirt moved showing part of a tattoo on his neck. He didn't appear the least bit interested in what the lieutenant was saying, he was texting someone on his cell but every once in a while would look over his partner's shoulder at the notes she was talking.

* * *

Elizabeth listened attentively to what Lieutenant Caldwell said because she knew Ronon wasn't going to. At the moment he was texting someone, probably Jeanie, on his phone. Occasionally he would look over her notes but then would go back to his phone. She was aware of a pair of eyes on her and she was sure they belonged to the man sitting across from her. Detective Sheppard hadn't taken his eyes off of her since he had entered the room, not that she minded. He was extremely handsome and she thought that maybe it wouldn't be that bad to work with the NYPD.

* * *

Ronon sat silently at the table half listening to what Caldwell was saying. Elizabeth had whispered to him that he was not allowed to talk so he wasn't. It was probably a very good idea because he was still mad that he had been forced to wait in the small room for an hour and anything he said probably wouldn't be very nice. The only things that were getting him through the boring meeting were his cell phone and the woman sitting across from him. He was texting Jeanie on his cell; well actually, it was Liz's cell. His had been broken the day before when he threw it at Dr. Kavanagh's head. He didn't think it would break but apparently, he had a really hard head. So he was busy talking to Dr. Jeanie Miller while she avoided doing work in the lab. While he talked to her, about the new doctor in the lab and the stupid things her husband had done that morning, Ronon kept glancing at the woman sitting across the table from him. She was beautiful, there was no doubt about that, with her honey colored hair and light brown skin. She looked nice; unlike most of the career women he had the pleasure of meeting in his line of work. He looked up and saw her smiling at the way her partner was staring at his, she had a beautiful smile it was warm and her eyes… Ronon shook himself out of his thoughts. He was not ready for a relationship and there was too much going on in his life to even think about dating.

* * *

Caldwell seemed oblivious to the fact that only one of the four other people in the room was listening to what he was saying. He just continued on trying to fill in the FBI about what they had discovered.

* * *

Half an hour later when Caldwell was finally finished talking and Elizabeth was finished asking questions the five of them got up to leave. Elizabeth shook hands with the three members on the police force and Ronon gave them all a small nod.

"Well, it was very nice to meet you all and thank you for this information it could prove very useful."

"You are very welcome Agent Weir and it was nice to meet you too." Caldwell said while leading her to the door with the other three trailing after them.

"Now all we need are your case files and the evidence from the lab and we will be good to go."

This froze all of the members of the NYPD and caused John more than a little irritation, and despite the fact that Agent Weir was the most beautiful woman he had ever met, he decided to voice his objection.

"Wait, hold on a second, this is our case, Teyla and I found this information, you can't just take it away."

Elizabeth could hear the anger in John's voice and felt frustrated by it, but years of being a diplomat allowed her to keep her voice calm when she answered him.

"I understand that you want to be a part of this detective, I do, but our team at the FBI specializes in these cases, if we take this you and Detective Emmagan are free to do your usual jobs."

"You don't think we can handle it."

Ronon leaned against the doorway as he and the other two watched the pair fight in the hallway. Other officers were starting to open office doors to look and them. He massaged his temples trying to hold off the headache he was getting until they left the precinct.

"No that is not it at all, I'm sure you are very capable…"

"Then let us help."

"Let me finish, I'm sure you are very capable but, you are not trained to deal with these types of situations."

"What types of situations? Dangerous ones?"

Teyla tried to cut in before this got out of hand.

"John this is not helping."

"No, what is she saying?"

Despite the fact that Teyla had not gotten through to him and John listened to her more than him, Caldwell tried to silence him as well.

"That is enough Detective."

"I am only saying that we are better equipped to handle the situation."

"What you're saying is that you are better than us."

"I did not mean to imply that."

"But you did."

"QUIET!" everyone looked up at the previously silent FBI agent. "This is how things are going to work; you are going to hand over your case files and all of the evidence…"

"No way, this is our case."

"Shut up." John looked at him in shock. "Now from the little of what Lieutenant Caldwell said that I was actually listening to I learned that this is an interstate case, which makes it a Federal case. If we do not have all of the information by three this afternoon you will all be charged with obstruction of justice."

Liz grabbed his arm and turned him around. She whispered harshly at him so if the other three were listening they could have easily heard them. However, they were still reeling from the fact that Agent Dex had spoken to focus on anything else.

"Ronon."

"No Liz, they made me wait in that little room for an hour they are lucky I don't want it by the time I leave this building."

She sighed, understanding his irritation.

"This is not going to help."

"I'm not done." He turned away from his partner and back to the other three stunned people. "In the interest of maintaining a healthy relationship between the NYPD and the FBI we will allow Detectives Sheppard and Emmagan to assist us, at our office."

"Yes." Sheppard pumped his fist in the air in victory.

"Under the condition that they follow orders. Is everyone okay with that? Good. Liz and I are going to lunch; meet us at the office around one. Let's go."

He grabbed his partners arm and began to pull her down the hallway but stopped when Teyla called out to them.

"Hold on a second."

Reluctantly he turned around to face her.

"Yes, Detective Emmagan."

"Where is your office located?"

"Right, The Kennedy Building, floor 34, suite 4."

"Thank you."

He turned to leave again.

"Agent Dex."

"Yes Detective."

"Would you like John and I to buy you lunch, to make up for the time you both had to spend waiting?"

Ronon smiled at her gesture and Elizabeth decided that she would do all of the talking again.

"That is very kind of you, but unfortunately Ronon already has plans and I as much as he would love to get out of them, he can't."

"Are you positive?" Teyla was disappointed that she would not be able to smooth things over.

"Yes, he is and he would never subject anyone to lunch with Dr. McKay, no matter how long they forced him to wait in an interrogation room."

Ronon smiled at that because lunch, or any time spent with Rodney could be a severe pain in the ass.

"Tell ya what Detective, you can buy the take out we will probably end up having for dinner."

She smiled at Ronon.

"That sounds fair."

"Good, now the two of us have to go because the sooner I pick up Rodney the sooner I can leave."

He grabbed his partners arm again and led her out of the station before anyone else could stop him.


	4. Chapter 4

At 12:30, Ronon sat in his office with the lights off and his head resting against the desk. He could hear Liz talking outside but did everything he could to tune her out. He cringed when the door opened and the light shined in his eyes. He was a little less angry when he saw that it was Kate with a glass of water and Advil.

"Thank you."

He took the pills and swallowed the entire glass before handing it back to her.

"No problem, sweetie. How was lunch?"

"Hell."

"What did he talk about?"

"I have no idea; I stopped listening when I heard the word quantum."

She let out a small laugh.

"Good idea."

He nodded before putting his head back down on his desk.

"They will be here in half an hour; I'll let you rest until then."

With that, she walked out of the office and left him in the dark.

* * *

The FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force dealt with classified information on a daily basis. Therefore, their offices were separated from the rest of the ones in the building. They had a suite with a moderately sized common room, or the bullpen, and four offices attached. There were no windows to the hallway but it was made up for with the large windows that gave them a view of the city. On one side of the room were Ronon and Elizabeth's offices and on the other side were the offices of Special Agent Evan Lorne and Dr. Kate Heightmeyer. Ronon and Elizabeth had been partners for five years. Elizabeth had previously worked with the United Nations negotiating treaties. She was the team expert on political science and international relations. Ronon had been in the military before he joined the FBI. Kate and Evan had been partners for the last four years when Kate joined the team. Kate specialized in criminal profiling and behavioral analysis. Evan dealt with most of their media relations. Together the four of them were one of the most successful FBI teams.

* * *

At 12:50, the Advil had just started to kick in and Ronon was almost asleep. He was taken out of his slumber by a beeping sound from the computer next to his head. Grudgingly he sat up to figure out what was happening. On the screen was a message from Jeanie that had been forwarded from his phone. He broke the phones so often that when he didn't pick up all text messages were immediately forwarded to both his computer and Liz's cell. Once his eyes had adjusted to the light, he read the message.

_Hey Ronon,_

_We finally got the information from the NYPD crime lab. It took forever, what is wrong with them, are they stupid? Anyway, we should get most of the results to you by tomorrow morning. _

_So how was lunch with my brother? Were you totally bored? Did you even listen to a word he said? I doubt you did because I know most of the same things he knows and I never follow what he's saying. I hope your headache isn't too bad and that you have taken the prescribed number of Advil for spending an hour with Rodney. Wow, I can write a lot when I want to. Hope you get a new phone soon, and when you do call me so I can tell you what happened with the good doctor. And I guess we could talk about work. _

_-Jeanie_

Ronon let out a small laugh before responding. When he was done, he got up, walked into the bullpen, and sat down in one of the chairs around the circular table. Kate was sitting next to him reading some of the files and taking notes.

"Where's Liz?"

"She went down to greet the Detectives."

"Fun."

A few moments later Elizabeth opened the door and was followed in by John and Teyla.

"Okay, this is the bullpen, where we do most of the work; our offices are off to the sides. This is Dr. Kate Heightmeyer, another member of our team. Kate, this is Detective Teyla Emmagan and Detective John Sheppard from the NYPD."

"It's nice to meet you Detective Emmagan, Detective Sheppard."

"Please, just call us John and Teyla."

"Well, then you can just call me Kate."

She sat back down after greeting them and John and Teyla took seats on the other side of the table.

"And you two already know Ronon."

His head was down on the table and he hadn't looked up since he sat down.

"Lunch didn't go well."

He grunted in response John's question so Kate answered for him.

"No not really, he has an awful headache, but the painkillers will kick in soon and he'll be fine."

"O'Neil wants to see you." Lorne said to Ronon before taking his seat at the table.

"Shit."

Ronon slowly got out of his chair and walked out of the room. "Evan, this is Detective John Sheppard and Detective Teyla Emmagan. John, Teyla, this is Special Agent Evan Lorne." The three of them shook hands then sat back down. Once the introductions were finished John leaned over the table to talk to Elizabeth.

"Who's O'Neil?"

"Deputy Director Jack O'Neil, he's our boss."

"Ohhh, Ronon's in trouble?"

"Sort of."

"Sort of, what does that mean?"

"Well he needs to get a new phone."

"That does not sound like he is in trouble."

"Yeah, I can't believe you guys get in trouble for that."

"The reason he's in trouble is not _that_ he broke the phone…"

Liz was stalling because she didn't want them to get a bad image of her partner, Lorne on the other hand didn't care.

"… It's _how_ he broke the phone."

"How did he break the phone?"

"Well, he may have, kind of, sort of…"

She stalled again and so again, Lorne cut her off and answered. This was his new favorite story and he really wanted to tell it.

"He threw it at someone."

"What!"

"Yeah, he threw it at someone's head, it hit them and broke."

"Who did he throw it at?"

"One of the doctors in the crime lab."

"Kavanagh." Kate grumbled from her seat.

"Don't like the guy?" Sheppard asked, Lorne answered for her too.

"No one does and the twenty minutes of yelling O'Neil is gunna do is strictly protocol, he hates him too."

"Protocol? Really?"

"Yeah, it's in the deputy director handbook: yell at Ronon for twenty minutes after he throws something at Dr. Kavanagh."

John and Teyla both laughed. Teyla stayed out of the conversation, content on listening and let her partner do the talking.

"So this happens a lot."

"Yeah."

"Well what happened this time?"

"It's a long story." Liz said, trying to move them to another topic.

"Cliff notes version." This time Elizabeth cut off Lorne so he couldn't tell them the entire story, which he found extremely hilarious.

"Ronon went to the lab to pick up test results, Dr. Kavanagh annoyed him, Ronon got mad, threw the phone at his head, the phone broke and the doctor went to the hospital."

"So we don't get to know why he threw it."

"No you don't." Elizabeth answered and the conversation ended there.

* * *

A little over twenty minutes after he left Ronon walked back into the room, while he programmed numbers into his cell phone.

"How was the latest chewing out session?" Lorne asked as Ronon sat back down in his seat.

"Fine, nothing new."

"You didn't listen did you?" Kate said knowingly from her seat next to him.

"No, he gave me the phone as soon as I walked in so I spent the time picking my settings and putting in numbers."

"Okay, as much as I would love to spend our time listening to Ronon tell us the latest thing he has done to piss off O'Neil we need to get to work."

"Okay Liz. Jeanie said they got the info from the NYPD and it should all be done by tomorrow."

"Good. Well, until we get all of that why don't we read and reread these files and see what we come up with.

"Fun." John muttered under his breath earning him a glare from Elizabeth who was still slightly annoyed at him from their argument earlier.

* * *

Five boxes of files and seven pots of coffee later it was 6:45. Lorne rubbed his eyes and looked at the large pile of files that lay in front of him.

"I'm hungry."

"Good for you."

"Shut up Ronon. Can we get something to eat?"

"I have the menu for that Chinese place in my office." Kate supplied helpfully.

"That's fine."

Kate nodded and put down the file she had been reading to go get it. While she was gone, Ronon's phone began to ring.

"Hello… how's it goin?"

"Is that Jeanie?" Ronon shushed his partner before going back to his call.

"Sorry, what were you saying… that's tonight, I totally forgot… no don't cancel… I'm leaving right now… okay I'll meet you there… love you too. Bye." Ronon hung up the phone and got up from the table. He put the files he still had to read in a box and walked into his office to get his coat. "I'm so sorry guys, I need to leave. I'll finish reading this stuff tonight."

"Everything okay?" Teyla asked worriedly.

"Yeah everything's fine; I just forgot I had to do something."

"Alright."

"You want me to order you something?" Evan asked as he looked over the menu Kate had given him.

"No, I'm good thanks."

"Call me when you get home?" Liz asked.

"Always." He kissed her cheek before picking the box back up and walking to the door. "Bye everyone."

He waved and quickly walked out of the office leaving everyone else sitting there wondering what had just happened.


	5. Chapter 5

Teyla carefully sipped her tea as John weaved through the morning traffic. He cut people off and yelled out the window as he drove to the Kennedy Building. Almost as soon as he had sped into the underground parking garage, he was pulling Teyla out of the car.

"Come on, we're late."

"Slow down John, I doubt Agent Weir will fault you for getting stuck in traffic." John continued to pull her to the elevator before he realized what she said and stopped.

"I know but…what? What are you talking about?"

"Nothing, just your crush on her." She walked past him into the building and he followed quickly behind her. She got in line for the security scan and smiled warmly at the guard.

"That is ridiculous." He half whispered to her as she walked through the metal detector.

"Alright." Teyla had an amused smile on her face as John continued to talk.

"Really I don't like her." He walked through after her and continued speaking in a harsh whisper.

"I believe you." She pushed the button and waited for the car to arrive.

"Is it that obvious?" She nodded as they walked into the elevator and pressed the button for the 34th floor.

"Yes."

"Damb it." John scowled as the doors to the elevator closed.

* * *

John pushed open the door to the bullpen and was surprised to find it empty. The lights were off and the doors were closed to three of the offices, from the fourth they could hear the clicking of computer keys. He walked over to the door and saw Agent Weir sitting at her desk.

"Hey."

"Hello John, Teyla. Please come in I just need to finish this report."

The two detectives sat down in the seats across from her desk and took the time to take a look around her office.

The walls were painted a light brown and there were large windows on the ones facing the bullpen and the city. Under the window that provided a view of downtown New York was a large comfy looking worn in couch. Her desk faced the bullpen with the two chairs John and Teyla were occupying across from it. There were short filing cabinets against the walls that were about the same height as her large wooden desk. Hanging on the walls were various pictures, diplomas and awards. Most of the pictures were of her and Ronon, there was one with the rest of the team. A few were of Elizabeth and a blonde woman John assumed was her sister and one was of a little girl with curly dark hair that looked vaguely familiar.

Elizabeth finished her report, stood up and grabbed her bag.

"You ready to go?"

"Yes we are." The two detectives stood up and walked out of the room. Elizabeth followed behind them turning off her office lights and shutting the door behind them.

"Then follow me." While the three of them were in the bullpen John again took notice of how empty it was.

"Where is everyone else?"

"Oh umm… Lorne and Kate went to supervise the transfer of Lanko to the building and Ronon is already down in the lab which is where we are going."

"Isn't that where the doctor Ronon doesn't like is?" John got an excited smile on his face as he thought of the story Elizabeth and Lorne had told the day before.

"Yes, but he is on medical leave for the week, apparently he got hit really hard."

"Oh." John's face visibly fell and the two women rolled their eyes at him as they walked over to the elevator. They got in and went down a few floors.

* * *

The three stepped out of the elevator and entered a huge lab. The ceilings were two stories high and there were large windows on the walls. There were several platforms around the room with scientific equipment on them and people in white coats working. Along one wall, there were two floors each with series of offices on them. Each office had floor to ceiling glass paneling. There was a platform around the edge of the lab on the second story where people could look down and watch the scientists work. Everything was very clean and shiny.

"Well this is it, The New York City FBI Crime Lab." Elizabeth gestured to the room with her arms as the other two looked around in awe.

"This place is huge."

"Yes, it is very impressive." Teyla agreed with her partner.

"Thank you." A petit woman with red hair and a large smile walked over to them and Elizabeth introduced them. "This is Doctor Katie Brown. She is our toxicologist and identifies chemicals and particulates found at crime scenes. Katie this is Detective Teyla Emmagan and John Sheppard from the NYPD." She took her hands out of the pockets of her white coat to greet each of them.

"It is nice to meet you both."

"You as well." Teyla smiled as she returned the other woman's greeting.

"How are you liking it here?"

"It's been great, lot of reading but the people seem nice." John said as he continued to look around the room.

"Most people here are very friendly, just watch out for Rodney when he's mad and Dr. Zalenka after Dr. Rodney has yelled at him." Kate said with a small smile on her face.

"Thanks for the warning."

"Have you seen Ronon?" Elizabeth asked after scanning the room for her partner and not finding him.

"Last I checked he and Jeanie were asking Carson if it was safe to make pancakes with a Bunsen burner."

"Oh God." Elizabeth left in a slow jog with John and Teyla behind her walking.

"They're probably in her lab." Katie called after her.

When they got to her lab, it was empty but there was a large burnt mess on one of the tables. They continued down the hall to her office where they found her and Ronon sitting on the couch drinking coffee.

"Pancakes didn't go well?" Jeanie looked over at Agent Weir as she entered the office.

"No, I think the batter was too runny but no worries I sent the new girl down to the diner." John and Teyla looked at the blonde woman with curly hair in amusement.

"I ordered you the Spanish omelet." Ronon said as he got up to pour himself another cup of coffee.

"You two are ridiculous."

"Fine I'll eat it." He returned as he handed her a cup as well.

"Try and I'll bury you under paperwork for the next year. Jeanie this is Detective John Sheppard and Teyla Emmagan. John, Teyla this is Doctor Jeanie Miller." The two came into the office and sat down on the couch across from Dr. Miller.

"Hi, how are you? You can call me Jeanie. I am the ballistics expert here and I also do bloodstain pattern analysis and some explosion analysis." She rambled on in a bubbly voice.

"And she's Ronon's partner in crime."

"Guilty. So who else have you met? Did you meet Rodney? He's my brother. He was in a pretty good mood this morning." They heard an explosion followed by yelling. "Good mood gone."

"Should we go check on them?" Teyla asked as she stood up to look out the window.

"Nah Beckett'll take care of it." Very soon after, they heard very loud yelling in a thick Scottish accent.

"So do either of you want some coffee?" Jeanie asked as she got up to get herself a refill.

"That would be great." John said.

"I am fine, but thank you." Said his partner from her seat next to him.

"Are you sure if you don't like coffee I can get you some tea from the lounge." She said handing John his cup and putting hers down on the coffee table.

"No, that won't be necessary."

"Are you sure it's not trouble?"

"Really you do not have to."

"Well I'm going to anyway." She gave Teyla a smile before leaving the room. She came back a few minutes later carrying a steaming mug and a few boxes of food, a younger blonde woman stood next to her carrying food as well. Elizabeth got up to help them and she placed the boxes on Jeanie's desk. The other woman quickly left and Teyla got up to get her tea from Dr. Miller.

"Thank you."

"It was no problem. It was also good that I was out there so Dr. Williams didn't have to carry everything in by herself."

Ronon got up to get his food and soon four other doctors were walking in and looking over the boxes trying to find their breakfast. One was Katie Brown and the other three were men John and Teyla had yet to meet. Jeanie took over introductions because everyone else was too busy eating. The three men were Dr. McKay, Dr. Beckett and Dr. Zalenka.

* * *

Dr. Rodney McKay was the one they kept being warned about. He was Jeanie's older brother and was engaged to Katie Brown. He was average height with short brown hair. Most of the time when he talked it was about some scientific experiment that most of the other people in the room did not understand. He was a physicist, did explosion analysis, and was an electronics expert. Often, he was the one that got all of the information on people for the FBI team.

Dr. Carson Beckett was the man who had been yelling in Scottish, he was average height as well with short messy dark brown hair. He dealt with DNA analysis and was a pathologist. He had been a normal doctor before he came to the crime lab so he also helped Katie identify some pathogens in the body. Many times, he had also taken care of Ronon after he had been injured and refused to go to the hospital.

Dr. Radek Zalenka had a Czech accent and often would curse Rodney out in Czech after he had yelled at him. Zalenka did crime scene recreation on his computer and with materials taken from the scene when it was possible. He was the one that rebuild devices they recovered, like bombs. He also did fingerprint analysis and data retrieval on computers and other damaged pieces of technology.

* * *

When breakfast was finished Katie, Carson, Rodney and Zalenka went back to work. Jeanie sat on the couch chatting for a few more minutes before grudgingly she went into the lab to work as well. Ronon, Liz, John and Teyla sat on the couches in silence drinking their coffee or tea until Agent Lorne and Dr. Heightmeyer came in.

"Hey guys." Kate said as she perched herself on the armrest on the couch next to Ronon.

"Hey Kate. The transfer finished?" Elizabeth asked while Kate stole Ronon's coffee and took a sip.

"Yup, we just left him in interview room 12." Evan said as he poured both himself and Kate coffee so she could give Ronon his back.

"Good. Let me go over his file again and then Ronon and I will go up there." Liz said as she searched through her bag.

"Actually Elizabeth, I was wondering if, since Teyla and I made the arrest, one of us could go in with you." John said quietly, while staring intently at the mug in his hands.

"Ummmm…" Liz looked over at her partner wondering what she should do. They almost never did interviews without each other. They had a system, Liz would ask the questions and Ronon would glare at them from the corner. Then if they were not cooperating, Ronon would take over and try to get them to talk using intimidation and his surprising intelligence. The system had been working nicely for the past five years and Elizabeth wasn't sure how an interview would work with John. He didn't seem like the kind of guy who would sit back and let her do all the talking.

"That sounds good, Liz why don't you take John with you?" Ronon said and Elizabeth looked at him momentarily stunned. She couldn't believe that he didn't want to interrogate someone, other than kicking down doors and shooting people it was his favorite part of the job.

"And what are you going to do Ronon?"

"Rodney should have the phone records for me soon, Teyla and I can look them over." She eyed him suspiciously.

"You are voluntarily reading something. Why?"

"Hey, if you want to look over page after page of phone calls then cross reference them be my guest-."

"No, I'll do the interview." She said, cutting him off. She decided that she would take Ronon up on his offer and question him about the why later.

"Good." He said and looked over at Teyla and John to make sure they were alright with it as well. "Is that fine with both of you?" They both nodded at him.

"Evan, Kate why don't you two go to Lanko's apartment and see if you can find anything useful that the police might have missed." Agent Weir said as she got up off of the couch and motioned for John to do the same.

"Sure." The two nodded and walked out of the room.

"Well, I guess it's time to actually do work." Ronon mumbled as he and Teyla left to go get the records from Rodney.

"Don'tchya hate that." John muttered sarcastically as he followed Liz out of the room.


End file.
